Thursday, July 24, 2008

Birdie! Birdie!

Below is the birdie I made for the Paper Traders Birdie! Birdie! swap. We were to decorate a Maya Road's birdie book pages front and back. It was a ton of fun, and I had an awesome time making them. The inspiration behind my creation was this YouTube video.
PLEASE BE SURE YOU HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON ON THE PLAYLIST TO THE LEFT BEFORE YOU PLAY THE YouTube, OR YOU WILL HAVE THEM BOTH PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME :0)


The front has the black and silver crown and a silver guitar for a wing. The black and silver fiber tail. I stamped the word "Tweet" three times with silver metallic ink and put a metal concho into the chipboard for the eye.

On the back side, I used the pink side of the crown, and I cut out a set of pink metallic lips. I set a bright pink snap through the hole in a silver metal flower and glued it on to make a wing. I cut the paisley shapes out and colored the back sides black, so they wouldn't show white on the other side, and glued them down, added a googly eye, set the big eyelet for the legs, and then the process of the legs began.

This was the hardest part. I must have tried a ton of different things before I found the right stuff. Baling twine was too heavy and thick- it would have held up nice, but I stabbed myself really bad working with it, and it was terribly dirty. Then I tried floral wire- ick. I just didn't like it. I suppose it would do, but I just didn't like it. Bag ties- too flimsy. They just kept snapping, I would get them bent, then- Pop! UGH. Then I tried the scrapbook wire. It kept curling up on me. I would flatten it out, and it just wouldn't hold it's shape. Jewelry wire- that's a joke, not at all going to work, at least not the stuff you can get at our Wal-Mart.

Well, then I had to go get a new sprinkler and lawn hose, and there it was sitting in the middle of the living room, under my daughters bum, and you know those things are tied together with heavy "bag ties" that have a plastic like coating on them. That plastic peals right off. Really it does. The wire inside was the perfect weight for this project, and it didn't curl up or snap or anything, and I could bend it with my needle nose pliers, and I didn't get poked. I was able to make cute little bird "toes" and everything!

I am sure my story is WAY more than you wanted to know, but hey- the most unusual things can be the best and perfect supplies when you are creating art! I could not be happier, and believe me I used more things trying to get these just right, and I found it with a piece of trash!

4 comments:

bockel24 said...

Love the guitar wing, Letha!

Joanie Hoffman said...

Aww, Letha, the little legs are so cute! And the paisley tail is such a neat idea. Good job!

Anonymous said...

lovely work Letha - that's a very unique way you have done the tails - they look great. x Keron

Marva Plummer-Bruno said...

Oh these are so cool! I love birds! Your blog is looking good! Thanks for visiting mine!